How Do You Build a Team?: By Becky Coder

         What is the importance of building teams? In my twenty-plus years of being in a leadership role and managing others, my personal goal has always been to bring out the best in others and to produce the most positive possible results by working together. This philosophy helps in the creation of new relationships between people in the workplace and allows me to discover new skills in my employees. These skills were not previously apparent when they were simply exerting effort to meet the demands of their job description. Many a time I asked myself: “How am I going to build teams?” The answer is this: because I have a vision, I am committed, and I trust in my abilities, I have been able to develop many productive teams. We have been moved towards challenge, through significant changes, and the end result was more confidence: individually, and as a whole.

       How have I created conditions for effective teamwork in the workplace?  It took creating the conditions that allowed ideas and people to flourish, employees to come together and to feel empowered, for performance to flow. As employees found out how important it was to be aware of the strengths and skills of others, each employee helped others fulfill their roles more effectively. We built good working relationships and connections between employees.  In the pursuit of challenging and meaningful team goals, we moved towards encouraging effective teamwork in the workplace.

          I have found that there are three factors important in building teams. The first one is to develop individual strengths. Chances are, an individual already knows their own role and skills they bring to the team.  The second is to establish good collaborative working relationships with others. Finally, it is important to support each of them in their pursuit of worthwhile and meaningful goals. One of the primary reasons for developing a positive team environment is to produce more positive outcomes. This creates a more effective, efficient, and productive work environment that helps to ensure success.  By working together, as a team, we accomplish more.